Beram Kayal misses out on Championship top 15 - but promotion is what counts

As long as he follows some of his former Celtic team-mates into the Premier League with Albion.

The Israeli has been one of the leading lights alongside Dale Stephens in the centre of the park as the Seagulls press for automatic promotion.

Supporters adore his all-action style, which could be reflected by a podium position in the players’ awards dinner at the Amex tomorrow night.

And yet Kayal’s influence has gone unnoticed by rival managers and his fellow professionals. The Football League has revealed details of its top 15 players in the Championship.

The list was compiled as part of last Sunday’s awards evening, in which Kayal’s colleague Bruno was the only Albion player named in the team of the season across all three divisions.

Managers were asked to rank their top five players and points were awarded accordingly. Stephens, tackling former club Charlton in today’s crucial penultimate away game, featured in sixth spot, centre-half Lewis Dunk 14th.

Three more central midfielders from Albion’s promotion rivals Burnley and Middlesbrough also figure - Joey Barton (4th), Grant Leadbitter (9th) and Adam Clayton (12th) but there is no sign of Kayal.

He is also absent, together with Stephens, from the PFA’s Championship team of the year, the midfield spots going to Barton and Clayton with Bruno again Albion’s only representative.

Kayal, unflustered by the snubs, told The Argus: “First I’m happy for the players to be there. They’ve deserved it, they’ve had a great season. If I’m not there I’m not there.

“It doesn’t really bother me to be there or not. Sometimes it’s nice to be there but the only thing important for me is to be here in the first eleven and what the manager here thinks about me. I try to do that in the best way I can.”

Kayal, 27, is on a well-trodden path following his switch 16 months ago from the giants of Scottish football.

He said: “At Celtic as well I played with great players in the middle, players who have proved themselves in the Premier League like Victor Wanyama, Joe Ledley, also Ki Sung-yuen.

“There were a lot of great players there who have gone on to succed with other clubs. Now my dream, as it probably was for them, is to go into the Premier League and do the same.”

The dream has been enhanced by Kayal’s pivotal partnership with Stephens. The former Maccabi Haifa man has missed only three league games all season and Albion did not win any of them.

It is a similar story with Stephens. He has sat out only one, the 0-0 home draw against Preston in October when Kayal was also ruled out.

Dale Stephens was selected by managers in the Championship

Their alliance has flourished out of initial adversity. Kayal suffered major injury setbacks at Celtic and when he signed for Albion Stephens was still a spectator, recovering from long-term ankle damage.

“Everyone said he is a good player,” Kayal recalled. “We played the last few games (last season) and I felt we could play together, the same kind of players, 50-50, box-to-box, running, defending, attacking together.

“We are friends as well. He’s a great lad and he’s had a great season.

“I’m happy to share the midfield position with him, sometimes as well with Sidwell or Crofty. We’ve had a great relationship.”

Albion will again lean heavily on that relationship today at Charlton, who were relegated this week and are beset by fans’ unrest.

“When you go away from home there are always a lot of things coming,” said Kayal. “Sometimes they are going to surprise you.

“We need to be focused on our game and how we win the game. They have a lot of problems there.

“I don’t want to be involved in the problems Charlton have.

“We are happy with the situation we have and where we are at the moment. We want to be focused on our game and how we can win it.”

The manager and player polls might say differently but, as far as Albion fans are concerned, Kayal is already a winner.